Tractor Supply Co. shows resilience during COVID-19, taps Adobe Experience Cloud to drive growth
Image source: tractorsupply.com.
Tractor Supply Company has been in business for over 80 years. In today’s competitive and challenging retail environment, the company has carved out a niche for itself. Operating more than 1,900 stores, Tractor Supply is the destination of choice for recreational farmers, ranchers, and tradesmen all across the United States. Last year, the company brought in over $8.3 billion in sales.
In recent years, the company began to modernize its shopping experience; e-commerce and mobile efforts were followed up with a BOPIS (buy online, pickup in store) offering. In the 2019 holiday season alone, BOPIS accounted for nearly 60 percent of online orders. And since Tractor Supply serves a predominately rural market, it became an added convenience for many shoppers to know that the right order (and quantity) would be there when they made a trek to the store.
Nobody could anticipate how valuable these innovations would become during a pandemic. The company was able to quickly shift BOPIS to curbside pickup, while ensuring customers could easily shop online. For the second quarter of 2020, net sales were up 35 percent, with e-commerce seeing triple-digit growth. As an essential business, the company has plans to open 75 to 80 new stores in 2020.
In order to drive continued growth and a blended shopping experience, Tractor Supply has selected Adobe as a technology partner. A set of apps will enable the company to deliver, personalize, and measure a great experience online, while supporting a seamless shopper journey from digital channels to physical stores.
Tractor Supply & Adobe
Adobe Experience Cloud brings together a set of technologies that are foundational to digital transformation. Tractor Supply will use Adobe Experience Manager to create and manage a consistent online experience across channels like desktop web and mobile. Adobe Analytics will help them grasp the overall shopping journey and leverage insights to make ongoing improvements. And Adobe Target will drive personalization for millions of shoppers, with targeted promotional offers and services like curbside pickup.
All of this builds on a digital foundation that has withstood the many challenges brought on by COVID-19. With the pandemic accelerating retail trends such as curbside and mobile shopping, Adobe apps will help Tractor Supply ensure its customer experience can scale and remain resilient—regardless of external forces.
“When our company embarked on digital transformation, we realized that shopping was no longer about supporting individual channels like in-store, web commerce, and mobile. The customer dictates the terms, and our job is to make their use cases feel seamless. Whether a shopper is using their mobile device in a store or leveraging curbside pickup, it all needs to have a feeling of harmony. It is a tall order, but technology partners like Adobe will help ensure we deliver and continue our trajectory of growth.”
Rob Mills, Chief Technology, Digital Commerce and Strategy Officer at Tractor Supply Company
By making bold moves and reimagining the shopper experience, Tractor Supply has become a leader in customer experience management (CXM) – a model that has driven resiliency for brands in every industry. The company has a technology foundation now to constantly iterate, along with the ability to test new experiences and move quickly when services have to be deployed. It is a success story in a challenging retail environment and a tangible example of being customer-centric.